Ten commandments for a peaceful retirement

Ten commandments for a peaceful retirement

Being a retired person, Sujatha Rao 

shares some valuable lessons she has  

learnt along the way for enjoying the  

evening of one’s life  

Retirement is one of the most important milestones in our lives. More so now, with working  

hours getting longer, targets getting steeper, and the economy becoming more and more  uncertain in an interconnected world where layoffs and job hops are so very common.  Hence, stress is something everyone has to fight with when one is at work, irrespective of the  nature of one’s job. 

Many people hang up their boots much before  their actual retirement day. They aspire to opt  for early retirement and get into things they  always wanted to do. So, when I retired from a  full-time career, I was the cynosure of the eyes  of youngsters rather than my peer group. Their  common refrain was “You are so lucky, Ma’am.  I wish I were in your place.” 

“Oh my God! Isn’t it odd that you are wishing  to be in the shoes of someone so old, at your  age?” I would quip in reply with a chuckle,  while inwardly telling myself that I don’t blame  them. After all, did I not spend the final few  years crossing the months off the calendar?  Wasn’t it true that this activity gave me greater  pleasure than the salary that would get credited  into my account every month? 

Having said that, if one assumes that work is  devoid of any pleasure, one would be gravely  mistaken. In addition to granting us financial  independence and giving us an opportunity to  make lifetime friends, it adds so much value to  our life in terms of learning. It is just that the  innumerable variables involving work, such as  the mismatch between what we want and what  we get, the daily commute, the difficult bosses,  the unpredictable economic environment  around us, etc. make it much more complicated,  and this often leads to the stress we undergo. A  career, being a marathon of multiple decades  and not a sprint of a couple of years, also  demands a lot of patience, grit, resilience, and  perseverance from each of us.  

Having been into my retired life for half a  decade now, I feel the following ten important  commandments would help us in reaching the  milestone with greater success and equanimity.  In retrospect, I realise that I missed out on a  couple of these, but I am glad that I was on  target for most of them.  

1. Thou shall start saving early 

“I will start saving later. Let me enjoy the hard earned freedom of spending over things I had  craved for all my life,” said Nitin as he ran his  hands lovingly over his motorbike that made a  15-lakh-rupee hole in his savings. 

There is some justification for what Nitin  feels. After all, isn’t youth all about a period  free from worries of responsibility? What is  the harm if one splurges over one’s desires  after having waited to do so for so long? Well,  nothing. As long as one puts a limit on such  spending, because everything is a trade-off in  life. If we don’t start saving early, we would be  losing the opportunity to reap the benefits of  compounding, and as Einstein once said, noting  

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Saving early in life is a virtue 

that compounding happens to be the eighth  wonder of the world, “He who understands it,  earns it; he who doesn’t, pays for it.” 

2. Thou shall not borrow beyond your  repayment capacity 

“I went in for a big loan. But then, isn’t an  EMI (equated monthly installment) as good as  savings?” Ashok quipped jocularly. Not only  did Ashok take a massive loan for his house, but  he also spent a lot of his savings on furnishing  it with very expensive items. After all, it was  a house where he and his family would live a  lifetime, he justified.  

An EMI is touted as good savings while paying  rent is said to be an avoidable expenditure.  While there is some truth in this, going beyond  

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your repayment capacity will land you in deep  trouble. We all know what happened during  the subprime crisis.  

Secondly, in a scenario where almost all the  kids leave once they grow up chasing their own  futures, leaving an empty nest behind, it’s time  parents think multiple times before spending  huge amounts on big houses.  

3. Thou shall cover yourself and your family  adequately 

India is one of the most under-insured  countries in the world. In the absence of social  security measures like those in the developed  nations, the situation behoves us to go in for  more insurance than what is required for  us and our family, more so if one is the sole  breadwinner. As we progress towards our  retirement, our focus should shift towards  covering ourselves and our spouses with  adequate health insurance. 

4. Thou shall prioritise your health over  everything else 

In a career spanning more than three decades,  Suraj was used to putting in crazy hours at  work. As he focussed on his growth on the  corporate ladder, he acted as though nothing  else mattered. Whenever someone close to  him told him to slow down, he would say, “I  will totally relax once I hang up my boots.”  However, when that day finally arrived, he had  to get busy running around hospitals as he had  contracted all the major lifestyle diseases, such  as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiac issues.  

With the pandemic having shown all of us the  importance of health, it’s time we gave top  priority to taking care of our physical, mental,  and spiritual health right from our youthful  days as all is lost if health is lost.  

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5. Thou shall put ‘Family and friends time’ on  your calendar 

Focused on providing well for the family,  Revanth spent all his time growing his business.  He had no time for vacations, he told himself.  For him, time meant money, and he didn’t  want to waste time spending it on friends or  family. “All that after I retire,” he would tell his  wife whenever she complained about his lack  of time for the family. With many an ailment  that renders him almost immobile, he has all  the time in the world now for regrets during his  retirement. 

While money is important, equally important  are the relationships we build over our  lifetime. It takes painstaking efforts to build a  comfortable web of family and friends around  us, which is extremely important both for our  physical and mental health.  

6. Thou shall have fun  

You shall budget for your kind of fun while  you are still working. Many people want to put  travel on their bucket lists. Postponing all the  travel to the retirement days is not prudent as  not all would have the requisite energy levels as  they age. Travelling with family members when  one is young ensures solidifying of familial ties  and creates fond memories.  

Life is all about experiential flavours, and travel  is one of the best flavours there is in this regard.  It also makes one humble by making one realise  that whether you are rich or poor, young or old,  big or small, the basic things that make human  beings human are the same across the world.  

7. Thou shall engage yourself in purposeful  action  

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Its important to have fun alonside work 

“I want my parents to be constructively engaged.  I don’t know how to get them to do that, and  I feel guilty about not spending enough time  with them,” Srija lamented as she works full  time in a very demanding profession.  

In a digitalised world, it is extremely important  that you pay serious attention to your passions,  hobbies, and spiritual pursuits during your  youthful days so that you can fall back on them  without constantly hankering after external  sources to keep you engaged, because doing so  

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may result in resentment from all quarters. 

8. Thou shall learn to forgive and forget with  an attitude of gratitude 

They say that as we age, we become wise.  Wisdom is about forgiveness and also conscious  forgetfulness while embracing an attitude of  gratitude. It’s time we forgive and try to forget  the words uttered in the heat of the moment in  

youthful arrogance by our near and dear people.  After all, we have only one life to be lived; so  let’s not spend our last few years on this earth  all alone in the name of keeping our scores even  because of the past baggage that we carry. 

9. Thou shall monetise assets close to your  retirement 

Many a time, people take pride in the number  of physical assets they own: multiple houses,  luxury cars, diamond sets, etc. However, close  to retirement, it makes ample sense to monetise  some of these assets, especially if your children  are NRIs well-settled in countries across the  globe. And if possible, give back to the less  privileged generously. 

10. Thou shall draw a will 

We keep postponing one of the most important  aspects of retired life, which is to write a will  so that the transfer of assets happens smoothly  after we leave this world. Our society is replete  with stories of families fighting over property  mainly because there were no wills left behind  by elderly people about the inherited ancestral  property. Be kind to yourself before you plan  a bequest. We need to make it easy to pass on  by leaving instructions about everything— even the funeral arrangements and gratuitous  donations. 

Jane Fonda, an American actress, activist, and  former fashion model, in her popular TED talk,  talked about our increasing life spans in the  present day enabling us to live long and fulfil  “third acts.” Hence, it is all the more important  that we plan well in advance for this “third act”  during our retirement days so as to make it  really “fruitful” for one and all. 

Sujatha Rao is a retired banker. She has been contributing articles to various newspapers and mag azines over the last two decades. Two of her short stories were placed third in Times of India’s national  level Write India contest (Seasons 1 and 2). Her first book titled In the Company of Stories was published  recently. Her other interests include reading, traveling, practising yoga, and mindfulness.